EE/ESD Program

Title of EE/ESD project

Education Program in Papua New Guinea

Created : Oct 18 2007 / Modified : Oct 22 2007

Type of the Project

National / Community Level: Community
Main contents and field: Conservation / Nature Awareness / Training / Wildlife

Target area and people: *The project is based in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province in PNG
*In-service and pre-service people

Background/Problems of the project: As a nation that is guardian of high biodiversity, unique fauna and flora, and large areas of intact rain forest, Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a high priority area for conservationists. The nation's unique landholding system, in which the government owns less than 5% of the total land area, poses unique challenges for conservation. Due to this landholding system, education should play an even larger role in conservation for PNG than for many other countries.

Objectives/Significance of the project: To train teachers and promote conservation

Description of the project: - To run its own teacher workshops based on Wildlife Conservation Society's Pablo Python Looks at Animals and HELP curricula
- To expand the program from three to five provinces
- To write and publish a PNG version of the Pablo Python curriculum
- To build its own Teacher Resource Center
- To collaborate with a local teacher college on a course that uses HELP and Pablo Python to train pre-service teachers in materials and methods of environmental education
- To publishe a quarterly teacher newsletter.

Materials/equipments used in the project:: Wildlife Conservation Society's Pablo Python Looks at Animals and HELP curricula

Result/Self evaluation (success or failure) including its reasons: Teachers trained through this program work in some of the most remote schools in PNG. Some of the teachers we have trained are using the WCS curricula to teach all subjects.

Other learning from the project: Participants in the in-service workshops have come from five provinces. Participants in the pre-service college course have come from throughout PNG, as well as the Solomon Islands.